2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.
Luke 10:2
Many people are praying for harvest which is not what Jesus told us to pray for. He told His disciples that the harvest was ready but was not being harvested due to a lack of labourers.
We have talked about the need for patience on our journey of unlocking the plan of God. This is especially necessary during our time of preparation to be used by God. Preparation time is never wasted time!
1 beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Romans 12:1
I believe that Paul presents us with the most important key to unlocking God’s plan in this verse. It is presenting ourselves as living sacrifices. This is key to our being able to succeed in unlocking and walking in the plan of God.
Jesus told His disciples that the harvest was ready to be pulled in from the fields. The world is ready to receive the message of salvation but there are not enough trained laborers who have made themselves living sacrifices.
The process of becoming a living sacrifice is not easy. It will require us to crucify our fleshly desires. This will take time but if we persist and do not rush through our time of preparation, we will come out on the other side vessels of honor for the Master to use.
The disciples were told to “wait” on the promise of God. I believe that there is a lack of harvesters today because we have lost the art of “waiting”. We lead a person through the salvation prayer, hand them a stack of tracks, and then send them out to win the world. We’ve become very good at making converts but struggle with making disciples!
23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.
24 But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men,
25 And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.
John 2:23-25
There were a lot of people who believed in Jesus because of the miracles they saw in His ministry. They were chasing an experience instead of a Savior. How many people today do the same thing?
I have seen ministries draw huge crowds as a result of advertising that miracles were happening. It seems like many Christians are chasing an experience just like the people who followed Jesus.
There are countless ministries that grew rapidly when the power of God was reported to be in manifestation. How many of these is anything but a shadow of their former selves today?
Kathryn Kuhlman conducted mighty healing crusades and her foundation was unable to survive her death. Brownsville Assembly experienced a mighty revival but struggled financially after the pastor and evangelist moved on. There are many stories just like these we could mention. I do not believe God is calling us to build big ministries that leave a legacy for us but will not last when we are called to move on.
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18
Chasing the latest spiritual fad is not what Paul was talking about. There are things we have to do to prepare ourselves to unlock the plan of God. If we will become living sacrifices and then renew our minds with the Word of God we will see the plan of God unlocked!
There are steps and stages of spiritual growth that are required to walk in the plan of God. This will require us to look at things that are not seen by looking into the Word of God.
We will have to pay a price to become living sacrifices. No person has become a disciple without spending time listening and absorbing the Word of God. This requires much more than spending time reading just one chapter of Scripture each day.
23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.
24 But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men.
John 2:24
Jesus knew the people’s hearts. They were flocking to His ministry out of selfish desires to experience a miracle. I find it interesting to see that Jesus would not commit Himself to these people. He knew the condition of their hearts!
One of the reasons we struggle with unlocking the plan of God is simply because God loves us too much to allow us to. He knows the condition of our hearts and will not commit His plan to us until we have prepared ourselves spiritually to be trusted with it.
Jesus would not commit Himself to the people who flocked to His meetings because He knew the condition of their hearts. Let’s contrast that with our services today.
The power of God falls. People come running to witness the miracles and receive a “touch”. Most of us would respond by starting to distribute flyers and tracts for the new “converts” to begin handing out. We might conduct a training session focused on teaching our fresh converts the right words to say.
Very few churches focus on making disciples. This takes a commitment of time and our preacher’s schedules are already full. We have attended a church for seven years and never once had a chance to even shake the pastor or his wife’s hand. They enter the auditorium as worship is ending and leave immediately after the message to “protect” their anointing. This seems to be the norm with most large ministries today.
I am personally thankful that Jesus was willing to minister to the people and not as concerned with “protecting” His anointing. If He had operated like many of our preachers today, the woman with the issue of blood could never have touched the hem of His garment and received her healing!
A young woman in our church recently shared a story of her involvement in ministry. Our church limits discipleship opportunities to the two services held each week. She had a desire to do something for God and met a couple in church with an outreach to prostitutes.
This couple invited the lady I was speaking with to “serve” with them in ministry. She was a relatively new Christian and agreed. They did not “disciple” her or provide any training but did start taking her to local strip clubs.
Ladies were delivered and led in the salvation prayer at the clubs. Unfortunately, this woman was not grounded in God’s Word and the ministry they had thrust her into opening the door to demonic activity. She was being tormented by nightmares but this couple encouraged her that this was only resistance to her “ministry”
I am not sure how this story will end. She was not prepared and had not taken time to renew her mind with God’s Word. It has been months since I’ve seen her in service and I continue to pray for her.
Unfortunately, her story is not unique. Many well-meaning people have been thrust out into “ministries” they were not prepared for only to end up broken and discouraged. We must give people time to become living sacrifices and renew their minds to prepare them to be used by God and fulfill His plan!
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